Growing Hope Project
Start a Growing Hope garden at your school to bring grieving children together at regular gardening sessions and help them cope with their grief.
Gardening groups for bereaved children
Do you have grieving children at your primary school? Has there been a death in the school community? Start a Growing Hope garden and help the children at your school with their grief.
Our Growing Hope Project brings together bereaved primary school children to garden at regular sessions at their school. These children can experience the benefits of gardening through the year whilst having the opportunity to meet with other grieving children and create an informal network of support.
This opportunity is open to schools nationwide. Winston’s Wish will provide online training, support and guidance for you to create a Growing Hope garden at your school. No matter what outdoor space and resources you have available.
As well as this, every year we will be welcoming schools in a specific area to join the Growing Hope Project. In March, we will be inviting schools from Brighton and Hove and West Sussex to get digging.
If you agree to take part in the evidencing process, there are start-up funds available to get you going. These funds are limited and so will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis each year, both to those schools in the chosen area and those from elsewhere.
If you’re interested, please register via the form below. If you have any questions, please email us on growinghope@winstonswish.org
How does gardening help with grief?
The Growing Hope Project follows the seasonal cycle of the year and uses it as a metaphor for growth and change that supports the children in coming to terms with their own changing circumstances. There is strong evidence to link gardening and connectivity to nature with improved mental and physical health. For bereaved children in particular growing vegetables can give a sense of purpose. Working with the cycles of the growing season can help children to find a relationship to loss.
The benefits of the group sessions
Working together with nature means children can connect with others who have had similar experiences, enabling them to access support and understanding. Through this they can realise that they are not alone and that the many emotions we feel when grieving such as sadness, anger, anxiety, guilt, fear, denial, disbelief and confusion are part of the journey and that feeling joyful, happy and being able to laugh is also allowed. The relationships formed with other children may create a supportive network of families within the wider local community. This helps children and their parents to better cope with their loss and reduces the experience of isolation that is often associated with bereavement.
I like being at Growing Hope because it helps me remember happy memories with my Dad. My Mum likes looking at his pictures and now I can finally look at them too with my Mum. Thank you Growing Hope.
Because of their shared experience it enabled the children to talk in a more direct way with each other about their situations and not worry about it being a shock for the other children to hear.
Register your interest
Are you interested in running a Growing Hope group at your school? Please fill out the form below to register your interest and we will get back to you with more information. Please note that Growing Hope training and support is currently only available to primary schools. If you have any queries, please email growinghope@winstonswish.org
Other bereavement support for schools
Support for schools
Information and advice for teachers and school staff supporting grieving children, including free resources, training and how to speak to our team.
Bereavement training for schools
We offer a variety of training on childhood bereavement for professionals including free online modules, in-depth day courses and bespoke training for organisations.
PSHE lesson templates
Download our free PSHE lessons for Key Stages 1-4, including lesson plans, presentations and resources and help your pupils develop the skills and understanding they need.
Connect with us
Sign up to our newsletter and follow us on social media for all our latest news and advice on supporting grieving children and young people.